All funds intended to be transferred from the city budget to the Armed Forces of Ukraine pass through budget programme 2219800, whose chief spending unit is the Department of Municipal Security.
But whether all the funds really reach the Armed Forces, as the mayor says, was investigated by the civic organisation “Zelenyi Lyst”.
We obtained a draft decision “On Amendments to the Municipal Targeted Programme ‘Safe City of Odesa’ for 2020–2024, Approved by Odesa City Council on 18 March 2020, No. 5797-VII”. We should say immediately that this is not the final version: according to the figures in the decision amending the budget, the final version has been increased by 21.6 million hryvnias. But this changes nothing fundamentally.
An analysis of this document makes it possible to understand the amount of money that the mayor declares to be “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine” in 2023, but which actually goes first and foremost not to the Armed Forces but to other security and law-enforcement bodies. Here are our findings.
Item 4 of the programme provides expenditure for the Southern Regional Directorate of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in the amount of 31.2 million hryvnias. This includes purchases of vehicles, visual and thermal-imaging surveillance equipment and so on. Most likely, this concerns equipping the border. But these are not funds “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 5 of the programme provides expenditure for the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast in the amount of 5.35 million hryvnias, of which 5 million is for purchasing vehicles and 350 thousand is for ensuring proper accessibility for citizens through routine repairs to premises. These funds are also not “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 6 of the programme provides expenditure for the Patrol Police Directorate in Odesa Oblast of the Patrol Police Department in the amount of 6 million hryvnias. This includes purchasing, equipping, servicing and repairing vehicles, and purchasing computer equipment, uniforms and protective gear for bicycle and motorcycle patrol personnel. Whatever else it may be, this is certainly not money “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 7 of the programme provides expenditure for the Security Service of Ukraine Directorate in Odesa Oblast in the amount of 10 million hryvnias. This includes purchasing and maintaining vehicles, purchasing fuel and lubricants, special-purpose equipment, computers, office equipment, licensed software and related materials. This money, too, is not “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 8 of the programme provides funds for the National Guard of Ukraine in the amount of 53.6 million hryvnias, of which 38.3 million is for carrying out official duties to protect public order and citizens’ safety in Odesa. It is difficult to regard these 38.3 million hryvnias as money going “to the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. This expenditure is especially hard to understand when one recalls that the city has a municipal institution called the “Municipal Guard”, for which expenditure of 107.7 million hryvnias is planned in 2023.
Item 9 of the programme provides funds for the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centres in the amount of 5.16 million hryvnias, planned to be spent on office equipment and communications devices. Even though the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centres are formally part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, it is difficult to call such spending “for the Armed Forces”.
Item 14 of the programme provides funds for the Territorial Directorate of the Economic Security Bureau in Odesa Oblast in the amount of 2 million hryvnias. These funds are intended for purchasing and maintaining motor vehicles and office equipment. It is also difficult to classify this money as being “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 18 of the programme provides expenditure for the Regional Service Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Main Service Centre in Odesa Oblast in the amount of 1.64 million hryvnias through the purchase of vehicles. This is certainly not expenditure “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Item 19 of the programme provides expenditure for the Territorial Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigation in the amount of 5 million hryvnias through routine repairs to an administrative building in Odesa. This, too, is difficult to call money “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”
Item 20 of the programme provides expenditure to support the activities of the Odesa Scientific Research Forensic Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the amount of 1.9 million hryvnias to build a specialised underground shelter. This is hardly expenditure “for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
As we pointed out previously, expenditure under the municipal targeted programme is recorded under 3 codes. Subtracting expenditure under code 8120 of 3.12 million hryvnias and under code 8230 of 16.5 million hryvnias from the programme’s total of 588.2 million hryvnias leaves 568.6 million hryvnias “to fund the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
To sum up, the following conclusion can be drawn: of the stated 568.6 million hryvnias budgeted for the municipal targeted programme “Safe City of Odesa” for 2020–2024 and supposedly going “to the Armed Forces of Ukraine” in 2023, 106.6 million hryvnias definitely does not go “to the Armed Forces”.
Providing for other security and law-enforcement bodies is indeed important, but it should have a much lower priority than money genuinely going to the Armed Forces during a full-scale war. Moreover, it looks like plain and simple bribery.